Intermission: A Night in Wallum

 

 

 

Intermission: A Night in Wallum

 

“YOU must be exhausted, dear.”

Joshua Northland had arrived at Margrave Wallum’s estate just before midnight. He was met by his wife, Isabelle, as soon as he stepped off the carriage.

Work had made Joshua’s arrival lag slightly behind the rest of his family, but now all the members of the Northland family were finally accounted for in Wallum.

Unfortunately, however, Joshua was not in a position where he could take extended vacations from work, so he had to return to the royal capital the following week.

Every year during Isabelle’s trip to Wallum, Joshua felt a bit like a traveling salesman, forced to temporarily live apart from his family because of work, but the short-term long-distance never truly bothered him.

“Amy’s probably sleeping at this hour, isn’t she?”

“Well, she is ten,” teased Isabelle. “Want to see for yourself?”

After Joshua exchanged a few words of greeting with his father-in-law, Joshua and Isabelle continued down the hall, in rapt conversation after being apart for so long. The topic of their children dominated the conversation—mainly Amy.

Harold was pretty much the same as he always was. Joshua had already heard the exciting tale of his participation in the kraken hunt.

“I met Prince Edward, by the way,” he said.

“Oh! Isn’t he such a nice boy?”

“I didn’t have any problems with his character.”

“No matter which world you find yourself in, the powerful always seem to be burdened with so many troubles, don’t you think? They don’t ask to be born into their position, and yet they’re never truly free.”

“You’re quite his advocate, aren’t you?”

“Well, he’s Amy’s friend,” Isabelle said, chuckling. Joshua couldn’t detect any hidden meaning to her words—everything she said came from the heart.

“From what he told me, it doesn’t sound like her friend wants to keep it that way.”

“My word! Did he really say so? Oh, phooey! I wanted to be there when he got around to saying that! So then, what was your response?”

Prompted by the shining eyes of his wife, Joshua somewhat awkwardly asked her to forgive him for what he was about to tell her.

“Well… I told him I wasn’t going to let her marry anyone until she turned eighteen.”

“Hitoshi…” Isabelle gave him a small smile. “That was a little silly.”

Even if that wasn’t how things were done in this world, she deeply understood why her husband felt that way. They were reincarnated into a different world—they were different people altogether—but there were still some lingering feelings and social expectations from their previous lives that couldn’t be erased. They would both view Amy as a child until she turned eighteen, at least.

“Well, it’s too late to cry over spilled milk, I suppose,” Isabelle continued. “Bit unfortunate for those two, but they’ll just have to wait another eight years.”

Joshua and Isabelle quietly opened the door to their sleeping daughter’s room. The inside was faintly illuminated by the moonlight spilling in from the window and by the dim magical lamp in the room. Since she was very little, Amy had always preferred sleeping with a soft light on in the room.

There was not one, but two round lumps atop the bed. Amy and Tigger were sleeping together—Amy on her side, turned inward, and Tigger beside her. Tigger’s fluffy orangey-brown and black front legs were tangled up in Amy’s stretched-out arms. Even though they likely really wanted to hug each other, in this season, they were both probably too hot.

Amy mumbled something incoherent in her sleep, stirred slightly, and was about to tug her arm away. With his eyes still closed, Tigger stubbornly clung even tighter to her arm, and Amy smiled in her sleep.

“I want…camera…,” Amy mumbled.

“Right?!” Isabelle blurted out before quickly covering her mouth with her hand.

As the two parents scampered away to avoid waking them up, they heard the thumping sound of a swishing tail. Joshua, the director of technology at the Institute of Magic, was filled with a renewed resolve to develop a camera as soon as possible.

🐾🐱🐾

TWO days later…

“Oh, Joshua. A package has arrived for you.”

“Thank you, Rudolf… From the royal palace?”

It was sent by Prince Edward.

Joshua considered the package with some trepidation, having no idea what Edward could have sent. He carefully broke the seal. Out of the securely wrapped package came something that glittered in the light shining in from the window—

“Sea serpent eyes.”

“Oh my word—that’s incredible!” cried Isabelle. Joshua read the attached letter.

These were items personally given to me by an envoy from a foreign kingdom, but not knowing what to do with them, I’ve just been holding on to these for many years without any real use for them. I heard from Amy that you were looking for some, so you can have them if you’d like.

I’d much rather they be put to good use than just sit collecting dust in the back of a shelf, hidden from the light of day.

“There are no undertones suggesting you return the favor, nor is he trying to curry favor with you,” Isabelle said, reading over the letter. “Quite a model student, wouldn’t you say?”

Joshua cleared his throat and looked away.

“I’m not so easily affected by gifts. I don’t feel a thing!” he said, carefully picking up the package and practically skipping off to his room.